Okay, so, I wanted to figure out when boxing got big, like really popular. It’s something I’ve been curious about for a while, you know?
First, I just started by hitting up the usual spots, you know, just typing “when did boxing become popular” into Google and seeing what popped up. It’s always a good starting point, right? There were a bunch of articles and stuff, so many, in fact, that I got a little overwhelmed. I ended up opening up a whole bunch of tabs.
Then, I started reading through those articles, skimmed most of them, just trying to get a general sense of things. Many of them talked about the official rankings and stuff. I noticed some names kept coming up: IBF, WBA, WBC, WBO, and The Ring Magazine. I guess these are the big players in the boxing world. I made a note to look into those later, for sure.
- IBF
- WBA
- WBC
- WBO
- The Ring Magazine
After that, I dug a little deeper, read a few of those articles more closely. One of them was written by some guy named Anish Parekh, dated November 3rd, 2022. I figured, this guy might know something about it. The headline was like, “why boxing is a popular sport”.
Then I checked out some sports news sites. You know, places like CBS Sports, seeing what they had on boxing. They had all the current stuff, like live scores, player stats, and standings. It was cool to see, but I was more interested in the history, you know, not just the recent happenings.
I felt a bit stuck after that. I was getting lots of info on recent stuff, but I still wasn’t getting a good grasp on when boxing actually blew up. Like, was it the 1920s? The 1980s? Earlier? Later? The results I was finding just weren’t clear, and I didn’t like that at all.
So, I decided to change my search terms. Instead of “when did boxing become popular,” I tried stuff like “history of boxing popularity” and “boxing’s rise to fame.”
This actually helped a bit. I started finding articles that talked about different eras in boxing, like the bare-knuckle days and the early days of gloved fighting. It mentioned how the rules changed over time, which probably had something to do with its popularity.
I also found some stuff about how boxing was a big deal in the early 20th century, especially in the 1920s and 1930s. They mentioned names like Jack Dempsey and Joe Louis, who were apparently huge stars back then. I guess those were some of the golden years.
And then, I learned about how TV played a big role later on, especially in the 1950s and beyond. When people could watch fights at home, it became way more accessible, and I guess that’s when it really exploded.
My Conclusion
So, after all that digging, I realized that boxing’s popularity wasn’t just one big bang. It was more like a slow burn that got hotter and hotter over time. It started small, got bigger with some famous fighters and rule changes, and then really took off when it hit TV. It’s still a big deal today, but it seems like it had a few different “golden ages” along the way. I’m glad I finally looked into this, it was a fun dive into history. Might do some more digging into those old fighters later on.
